Like they said puffy cheeks are symtom of too much cortef. Typically if a child has had repeated crises, doctors will riase the dosage of cortef to be prepared for possible future crises, but this shouldn't be a long term condition. Make sure you point it out to the doctor. He or she should already be aware of it, and will be making plans to acheive a more balanced dosage, but it never hurts toremind them, just in case.

My two with CAH are 8 and 4 so I haven't any experience with teen problems, yet. There are some with CAH who post here who hopefully will giver you the benefit of their experience.

CAH can cause moodiness. With my children I have explained to them that it will do this, and they should be extra careful that when they find themselves in a bad mood, and there's nothing really that they can think of that could have made them amd, it's probably the CAH and they should control their emotions. I use Genesis 4:6 and 7 as an illustration of this. Cain was pouting because His gift to God wasn't as good as Able's. God said to Cain, "Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him." The key phrase there is "sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him." meaning, sin wants to boss you around and make you do things, but you have to be the boss instead. As what usually happens when someone has a hurdle to overcome, they wind up overcoming much more. My two with CAH tend to be the more calm, since they know they must work at it. They aren't always that way, but their moodiness is easy to handle by simply reminding them of the source.

Hadn't ever heard any thing about kidney problems in relation to CAH.

As for CAH making girls lesbians, there's several lengthy discussions about that on the Controversies board. So far the evidence seems to be pretty subjective, and inconclusive, and, in all honesty, it was pretty irresponsible of whatever medical person told you that, to have done so. You'd think they'd have enough tact to understand the problems you're already facing without frightening you with old wive's tales.

We live in Tulsa, and have so far, in the 8 years we've  been involved with CAH met one person once with it. Other than that it's been all through the internet. LA's a tad bit larger than Tulsa so you might have more luck actually finding a real face-to-face support group, but from what I've heard most parent, and kids rely on the internet for information and support beyond what they get from their doctor.